Lady Owls Take First Loss of Season at LQPV Invite, 66-58 loss to the Minneota Vikings

The Hancock Lady Owls played a rough first half against a solid, once-beaten Minneota Vikings squad on Friday night at the Lac qui Parle Valley Holiday Invite Championship. After regrouping at halftime and playing a much more competitive second half, they whittled a 14-point deficit down to five points with two minutes remaining in the game. Their hustle and smart play down the stretch was not enough, however, as the Vikings held on for the win. The girls making up the Minneota team are very talented, as they went an unbelievable 30-0 in volleyball this past fall, winning the Class A championship.

The Vikings hit free throws down the stretch to hand the Lady Owls their first loss of the season. Both squads finished the night with an 8-1 record going into the New Year.

The Lady Owls kept it close in the game's first eight minutes, down 12-10 after Tara Thielke hit a glass shot in the paint against tight defense. It was only the Lady Owls' third field goal of the game at that point. Eighty seconds later the Vikings had scored three straight field goals (a trey, a transition layup, and a paint shot) to take a 19-10 lead with 8:50 left before halftime.

The Lady Owls shot only 36 percent for the game (20 of 56) and 12 of 21 from the charity stripe.

Their next action is at Hancock High School on Tuesday, January 2nd, returning to Pheasant Conference action against the Wheaton-Herman-Norcross Warriors.

Lady Owls Move Into Championship Game at LQPV Invite

(Re-printed from the West Central Tribune)

Hancock’s press and trap took over the game in the second half, allowing the Owls to pick off Lac qui Parle Valley 68-52 in the first round of the Eagles girls invitational on Thursday.

Hancock and Minneota play for the title at 6 p.m. today.

Four players did all the scoring for Hancock (8-0) — Tara Thielke had 22 points, Bree Holleman 18, Jenny Noordmans 17 and Chelsea Voorhees 11. Noordmans added nine rebounds and four steals. Holleman also had nine assists and four steals.

The Owls held a slim 24-23 lead at halftime before the trap started producing turnovers that led to breakaway lay-ups.

Lady Owls' Photos from the 69-50 Win at Ortonville

Lady Owls Blister the nets at Wadena-Deer Creek, Blasting the Wolverines 76-51

Tonight in non-conference action the Hancock Lady Owls basketball team continued its unbeaten start to their season with a 76-51 whoopin' of the Wadena-Deer Creek Wolverines (2-5).

As a team, the Lady Owls shot with a high clip of 53%, including 9-of-15 from behind the arc (60%). Leading the charge tonight in Wadena was Tara Thielke, who drained six three-pointers and 32 points (7 rebounds). Other scorers were as follows: Bree Holleman 19, Jenny Noordmans 14 (7 rebounds), Chelsea Voohrees 8 (7 rebounds), Stacie Cunningham 2, Kelsey Olson 1. Holleman led the team in the assist department with six, followed by Noordmans with four assists and six steals. Stacie Cunningham also added four steals of her own.

The 7-0 Lady Owls will now enter Christmas vacation with a great amount of momentum, all of which will be needed when they travel to the Lac qui Parle Valley Holiday Tournament next week. Their opening game will be at 6:00pm Thursday December 28 at the LQPV High School in Hantho Township, Lac qui Parle County. All four teams at this tournament have a shot at going away 2-0. The host Eagles are 4-2, including a 54-50 win over a good Montevideo team and a big thumping of a "down" Clinton-Graceville-Beardsley team 70-47. Minneota (5-1) and Russel-Tyler-Ruthton (6-0) also join the Lady Owls at this tournament and bring a large amount of momentum with them as well, with the Vikings just being defeated on Tuesday this week by the R-T-R Knights 57-44 in Tyler.

Update after Friday Dec 22 Action

The Minneota Vikings (6-1) hosted Ortonville Friday night and came away with a narrow victory, 53-49, to bounce back from their first loss of the season to the Russel-Tyler-Ruthton Knights earlier in the week. Meanwhile, R-T-R beat a winless Hills-Beaver Creek (0-8) team on the road 68-60 to improve to 7-0, matching the Lady Owls' record going into Christmas Vacation.

Lac qui Parle Valley, who hosts Minneota, R-T-R, and Hancock next week Thursday/Friday in their Holiday tournament, had their only game of the week (against Yellow Medicine East) cancelled on Thursday night due to inclement weather. The Lady Eagles will bring a 4-2 record to their tournament, with the composite total of all four teams being an impressive 24-3.

Hancock Lady Owls Thrash Ortonville 69-50 in Pheasant Conference Action

This big win at Ortonville also propelled them with big momentum towards being the top team in Sub-Section 5A-South, as they will face stiff competition from K-M-S, Ortonville, and Osakis for the Number-One seed next March.

After an initial tie of 3-3 in the opening minutes, the Lady Owls' offense heated up the Ortonville gymnasium while building leads of 16-9, 24-15, and finally 31-19 at halftime, using great outside shooting (six treys) and great defense in the paint to go into the locker room with a lead.

Most noteworthy about their great play in the first half was that the team expanded their lead from 13-9 to 31-19 at halftime without leading scorer Tara Thielke, who took the bench with two fouls at the 9:00 mark. The coaches knew that their best player could not enter halftime with three fouls in what was expected to be a close and physical game. Freshmen Lindsie Cunningham came in with a big task at hand, driving around the tall Ortonville guards and forwards, playing a solid perimeter game to fill in for senior sharpshooter Thielke.

The Lady Owls picked up where they left off at halftime by running their press at full steam, getting two straight unanswered buckets to go up 35-19 in the first 25 seconds of the second half. They built a lead as big as 50-27 before Ortonville standout Tabitha Henrich sparked a stagnant Trojans' offense with a trey and two paint shots of her own.

The Trojans displayed a very rough and physical style of play over the game's final 10 minutes, hoping to make a move on Hancock's big lead. The Lady Owls were fully up to the task, pushing the ball upcourt and matching the Trojans' intensity in the paint. Ortonville would get no closer than 10 points, down 58-48 with 2:55 on the clock, as their rough-and-tumble movements sent Hancock to the free throw line. There the Lady Owls responded with gusto by draining nine-of-ten free throws in the game's final three minutes, showing their superior stamina and focus to the final buzzer.

In the final seconds, a great steal and layup by Stacie Cunningham on the press put an exclamation point on this hard-earned win by the Lady Owls, as they move to 2-0 in Pheasant Conference play and 6-0 overall. It was their first win over Ortonville since February 10, 2004, during Tara Thielke's freshmen season when they went 1-1 with the Trojans in Pheasant Conference play. Ortonville is now 0-1 in the Pheasant and 2-4 overall.

The Lady Owls travel to Wadena-Deer Creek to face the Wolverines in non-conference action on Thursday, December 21. After Christmas they will participate in the Lac qui Parle Valley Invite at the Eagles' High school near Madison on Thursday and Friday, December 28 & 29.